Ch.12

A few weeks before Halloween, Alex texts me telling me that her family and she are doing a challenge with each other. To see who can last the longest without using their electronics. Which means we will only be able to really talk at school or if I go over to her house.

"So what does the winner even get?" I ask Alex as we are walking to lunch.

"Just one thing that we want. I'm gonna for a few college textbooks since they are so expensive," Alex says as I stare at her while shaking my head.

"You would ask for that," I say to her making her give me an annoyed look.

"Oh, then what should I ask for?!" Alex says while I think about it for a bit.

"How about a trip to the one place you want to visit, but your family would never do normally," I say to her as she nods her head thinking about what I said.

Alex seemed to be doing well for this challenge, with her brother Luke being the first to break. As a viral video was going around his grade, him needing to see it so he broke down to watch it. Then one day as I was sitting in my room playing some 'Runescape' Alex texted me.

'Seems she either won or was the next to break,' I think to myself picking up my phone.

'I got a B on our last science test!! 😡' Alex texts me while I laugh just imagining her anger about losing the contest and not getting an A.

'Maybe next time we should actually study instead of other things 😉' I text her back which I can imagine has her flustered slightly. She doesn't even respond for a few minutes meaning I successfully made her flustered.

'Whatever. Next time we'll really study then!' Alex texts back.

'Sure I look forward to it 😘' I text her back without her responding again most likely being annoyed by me.

The next few days Alex tells me her Mom was next to break since she realized changing reservations for a trip to see Phil's family requires the Internet. Then her Dad broke when one of his fantasy league members got injured. Haley won the contest surprising everyone. She wanted a car for winning, but someone how her parents talked her out of getting one.

Halloween was approaching again, with my parents and sister going over to my Uncle and Aunt's house. While I headed to Dunphy's house since I was going to Hang out with Alex. Though Alex told me she didn't want to dress up this year, I still dressed up this time I was Ghost Face from Scream. Arriving at the house I can see like last year they decked out the house.

"Oh, cool ghost costume!" Luke says to me answering the door wearing a mad scientist costume.

"Thanks and I like your crazy scientist costume, I thought the movie was ok. Then again there are worst movies," I say to Luke who gives me a confused look.

"Thanks and what movie?" Luke says as I walk inside.

"The Scream movies? It's a series of horror movies. Another one just came out," I say to Luke who just shrugs his shoulders not knowing what I am talking about.

"Well whatever, Alex is locked up in the cage if you are here for her," Luke says taking me by surprise at what he said.

"What?" I say as he points over to the dog cage with Alex inside reading some books.

"I see…" I say taking my phone out and taking pictures of her making her look over seeing this happen.

"Gabe! What are you doing?!" Alex says annoyed that I am taking pictures of her.

"Taking pictures that way I can use this later against you," I say to her with a chuckle as she scrambles out of the cage.

"Crap! You are right! I should have done that too," Haley says coming downstairs wearing a slutty Nun outfit.

"What kind of Nun wears that?" Luke says seeing her.

"Not Mother Teresa, that's for sure," Alex says having gotten out of the cage.

"It's back when she was hot," Haley says doing a twirl while showing off her body. Alex seems to think I'm checking out as her face darkens.

"Haley! I told you not to wear something like that!" Claire says coming out to see the four of us talking in the living room. Claire was wearing a white dirty and damaged wedding dress, like an undead bride.

"You said change! So I changed!" Haley says annoyed with Claire.

"Nice Ghost costume, Gabe!" Phil says seeing me as the mother and daughter argue. Phil was wearing a fancy tux that was damaged and dirted with a top hat, as he was supposed to be a zombie groom.

"Thanks," I say back.

"You saw the Scream movies?" Claire says having stopped arguing with Haley and seeing my costume.

"Yeah, I love horror movies. Though the scream movies weren't the greatest, they weren't the worst either," I say to Claire who nods her head agreeing with me.

"Ok good then you can be a part of the house of horrors. Do you have a fake bloody knife… good then you can stand on the stairs menacingly," Claire says as I show her the fake bloodied knife that came with the costume. Just then someone was knocking on the door.

"Everyone to their places!" Claire says as everyone goes to a spot in the house.

Alex sits in the cage with a grumpy face, while giving me side eyes confusing me. Haley was standing by the living room entrance fixing her costume to appear as attractive as possible. Luke was standing by some set-up 'science' equipment. Like Claire said I went to the stairs while holding my bloodied knife like a serial killer. Claire stood next to Phil as the two answered the door.

Instead of tricker-treaters, it was just Cam, Mitchell, and Lily. Claire sighed very annoyed, but ushered them inside. Claire made Mitchell dress up as a scarecrow, with Cam sticking his head inside a hidden area of the candy bowl. So it looked like a severed head was near the candy bowl.

A few minutes after they appeared, Jay, Gloria, and Manny appeared. With Jay wearing a very basic gargoyle costume, with Gloria wearing a black dress and trying to appear like a witch. Manny was wearing a costume to appear like Frankenstein's monster.

Though as soon as Gloria spoke everyone went quiet instead of her usual accented voice. It was a very regulated 'normal' American voice, though at the same time very deadpan. We all just stared at her in utter confusion with Manny sighing and hearing his Mom talk like this.

"What? Jay says my accent is too hard to understand. So I talk like this now to be understood," Gloria says as everyone looks to Jay who just shakes his head.

Then a few tricker-treaters show up knocking on the door. With everyone getting into place again though this time with all the inner arguments everyone looks mad. So the first set of tricker-treaters does not go so well.

"Come on guys! Just this one time a year is all I ask for everyone to try!" Clarie says while stomping off to the kitchen with Phil quickly following behind her.

Gloria, Jay, and Mitchell are talking, with Jay trying to apologize for his statement earlier. As Mitchell is just standing there unmoving, with Haley texting on her phone. Cam is cooing to Lily, while Manny and Luke are talking about school gossip. I walk over to Alex who is still staring at me with an annoyed look.

"So you gonna tell me what's wrong?" I ask Alex who is sitting in the cage glaring at me.

"No, it doesn't matter. Just leave me alone," Alex says as I sigh sitting down next to the cage while looking at her.

"Whatever I did I'm sorry," I say not sure what to say in this situation.

"I saw you looking at Haley earlier! I get it, everyone likes Haley! She is the pretty one and the cool one! While I'm just the nerdy loser sister!" Alex says as I can see Cam is now not so secretly listening in to our conversation.

"First, I could never like Haley, because she reminds me of some girls I used to know. Too self-important to care about others, while their image in other people's eyes is all that matters to them. Sure they might not be like that all the time, but it still gets tiring to deal with someone like that," I say to Alex who is just staring at me as Cam's face goes surprised hearing me.

"I'm not saying that you don't care what other people think of you, everyone does even if it is just a little bit. It is just you are who you are and you don't care if everyone likes you. You are smart, down to earth, and just as beautiful as your sister. Plus it's nice having someone I can talk to on my level without having to dumb it down for them," I say to Alex before she can speak making her blush and hearing me while smiling. Cam nods his head happy with what I said too.

"Fine you are forgiven," Alex says as I smile at her.

"What other girls?" Alex then says I think of my past life while hoping she didn't catch that part.

"Uh… from Chicago," I say as Alex nods her head, while I sigh internally successfully passing the statement.

Looking over I can see everyone else has made up with each other too. The rest of the night goes fairly easy and fun. As some people got a kick out of the Dunphy's house of horrors. While I enjoyed Halloween for the first time without my family and not trick-or-treating.

A few more months flew by with Christmas coming and going. Though for my family it was the first time having Olivia for Christmas. It was a big one with everyone taking pictures of her among the presents, sitting on Santa's lap, opening the gifts, and just being a cute baby.

Then Gloria invited my family along with Jay's family to celebrate Manny's birthday. As we all arrived it appears everyone else is already there. Once we sit down Manny gives a speech to everyone thanking them for being there. Though it looks like nobody wants to be there. As it seemed Jay had to wait for the tardy Gloria, with Mitchell trying to buy a gift while Cameron meanders, and Phil has to fill out the application for Family Camp, as they defend their Dirty Dancing title from the previous season.

Alex told me about the Family Camp thing, and how last year they lost the 'Color Wars', but Phil just likes to rub it in, because 'if you ain't white, then you ain't right'. He even made up t-shirts, which the black cab driver who drove them home totally 'loved'. I even felt secondhand embarrassment when she told me about that.

After Manny's very sad speech, he is growing older and life seems to be short. Making me think that this kid has some issues if he is having a 'mid-life' crisis already. Though we each have to deal with the eventual death in our ways. The waiter brings our food, where everyone starts to eat, with Mitchell coming back with his and Cam's gift for Manny.